El Cocuy trek, Colombia 2011.

first published at Thorntree

I made El Cocuy trek in last days of this October. There wasn’t too rainy but there were permanent clouds above 4200 m, so not too much views of snow-capped peaks… It's beautiful nevertheless. Consider temperature there was about 15°C at day and the maximum fall at night was about zero Celsius only once at whole week (NB: situation may dramatically changes if sky will clear).
It’s good idea to have GPS receiver with preloaded trek because of low visibility in temporada de lluvia. (I uploaded my trek with good resolution for such kind of use here).
It’s possible to made the trek without guide (you will be quickly asked at the park office about understanding the route key points and that you have required equipment – much easier then acquire similar permit for independent trek at Los Andes in Merida, Venezuela). Whole trek is reasonably marked by stone piles and trails are good beaten and visible (don’t believe LP description which stated opposite).

Also I wish to beware all hikers to use LP description of El Cocuy trek very cautiously (I have last 2009 edition and absolutely unsatisfied by this part there). It’s pretty outdated (eg. LP beware about crevasses at B. del Castillo, but at the pass you will watch the sign informing you that glacier gone out more then 10 years ago…), huge errors in altitude of passes (200 m more or less are easy), strange advise to cross highest pass at the trek in evening, and killing schedule of acclimatization to altitude (LP offer you take a car to 4000 m at 1st day and make 5200 m ascent for acclimatization next morning). Two passes have wrong/no name in LP description (B. Cardenillo instead of B. del Carmen and Patio Bolas before B. de Cusiri), and two more passes in trek just not mentioned in LP – you will realize at evening that the only way to descent from hanging valley of lake Panuelo is to cross the small ridge by the pass with 4m of simple climbing and with orientation far from obvious (fortunately the way marked by the stone piles but it may be challenging in the fog). Alto de la Cueva is also pass (road one) — so expect you will lose your altitude and gain height again.
I wonder why this part of LP guidebook is not rewritten by the staff in so long history of editions (no changes from 4th to 5th eds at all)…

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	El Cocuy trek, Colombia 2011. first published at Thorntree I made El Cocuy trek in last days of this October. There wasn’t too rainy but there were permanent clouds above 4200 m, so not too much views of snow-capped peaks… It's beautiful nevertheless. Consider temperature there was about 15°C at day and the maximum fall at night was about zero Celsius only once at whole week (NB: situation may dramatically changes if sky will clear). It’s good idea to have GPS receiver with preloaded trek because of low visibility in temporada de lluvia. (I uploaded my trek with good resolution for such kind of use here). It’s possible to made the trek without guide (you will be quickly asked at the park office about understanding the route key points and that you have required equipment – much easier then acquire similar permit for independent trek at Los Andes in Merida, Venezuela). Whole trek is reasonably marked by stone piles and trails are good beaten and visible (don’t believe LP description which stated opposite). Also I wish to beware all hikers to use LP description of El Cocuy trek very cautiously (I have last 2009 edition and absolutely unsatisfied by this part there). It’s pretty outdated (eg. LP beware about crevasses at B. del Castillo, but at the pass you will watch the sign informing you that glacier gone out more then 10 years ago…), huge errors in altitude of passes (200 m more or less are easy), strange advise to cross highest pass at the trek in evening, and killing schedule of acclimatization to altitude (LP offer you take a car to 4000 m at 1st day and make 5200 m ascent for acclimatization next morning). Two passes have wrong/no name in LP description (B. Cardenillo instead of B. del Carmen and Patio Bolas before B. de Cusiri), and two more passes in trek just not mentioned in LP – you will realize at evening that the only way to descent from hanging valley of lake Panuelo is to cross the small ridge by the pass with 4m of simple climbing and with orientation far from obvious (fortunately the way marked by the stone piles but it may be challenging in the fog). Alto de la Cueva is also pass (road one) — so expect you will lose your altitude and gain height again. I wonder why this part of LP guidebook is not rewritten by the staff in so long history of editions (no changes from 4th to 5th eds at all)…